Salix × fragilis

There is a large group of crosses between white willow (S. alba) and crack willow (S. euxina), of which golden willow ‘Basfordiana’ is one, distinguishable from the rest of the group mainly by its yellow-orange branches. The colour is at its brightest in late winter/early spring in the youngest branches, one of the reasons for cutting back hard, producing strongly coloured suckers. If allowed to grow freely golden willow can achieve heights of 25m (80 ft.) with a trunk a metre in diameter.

This very variable crack willow hybrid is a cross between white willow (S.alba) and crack willow (S. euxina) over many generations, and back-crossings with the parent species. Individual trees vary in habit, in height, in the colour of their shoots and in the shape of their leaves. In fertile moist places they grow into large broad-crowned trees in some ways resembling the oil trees of southern lands.